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Is Imperva Inc (NYSE:IMPV) the right investment to pursue these days? Investors who are in the know are buying. The number of long hedge fund positions advanced by 2 in recent months.

At the moment, there are plenty of methods market participants can use to track their holdings. A pair of the best are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite hedge fund managers can outperform the broader indices by a significant margin (see just how much).

Just as key, optimistic insider trading sentiment is a second way to break down the investments you’re interested in. Obviously, there are lots of motivations for an insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this strategy if shareholders know what to do (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, it’s important to take a glance at the recent action encompassing Imperva Inc (NYSE:IMPV).

What have hedge funds been doing with Imperva Inc (NYSE:IMPV)?

At year’s end, a total of 8 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 33% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ sentiment swirling, there exists an “upper tier” of key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.

When looking at the hedgies we track, Alkeon Capital Management, managed by Panayotis æTakisÆ Sparaggis, holds the most valuable position in Imperva Inc (NYSE:IMPV). Alkeon Capital Management has a $22.7 million position in the stock, comprising 0.7% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Andor Capital Management, managed by Daniel Benton, which held a $10.2 million position; 1.8% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other peers that hold long positions include Brian Ashford-Russell and Tim Woolley’s Polar Capital, Charles Clough’s Clough Capital Partners and Richard Driehaus’s Driehaus Capital.

Consequently, specific money managers have jumped into Imperva Inc (NYSE:IMPV) headfirst. Millennium Management, managed by Israel Englander, initiated the most outsized position in Imperva Inc (NYSE:IMPV). Millennium Management had 1.8 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw also initiated a $0.8 million position during the quarter. The only other fund with a new position in the stock is Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management.

What do corporate executives and insiders think about Imperva Inc (NYSE:IMPV)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is most useful when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the latest half-year time period, Imperva Inc (NYSE:IMPV) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 11 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Imperva Inc (NYSE:IMPV). These stocks are Lifelock Inc (NYSE:LOCK), FleetMatics Group PLC (NYSE:FLTX), Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:TYPE), Jive Software Inc (NASDAQ:JIVE), and Insight Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:NSIT). All of these stocks are in the application software industry and their market caps match IMPV’s market cap.